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 Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:07 pm
"Tia! Tee-ah! TEEEAHH!"
Banjoko was bored. Momma was trying to take a nap by the river, and when Banjoko had asked her to play hide and seek, she had grumbled and said, "Go play with your sister."
So Banjoko was wandering around the jungle that was their home, searching for his brightly-colored sibling. She must be around here somewhere, the young male thought. Tia was always running off. She was a naughty girl, never listening to Momma. But that was okay, Banjo didn't care...except when she ran off and left him alone without a playmate.
"Tia, come out and playy?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:45 pm
 Tia loved to explore, but more then that she liked to cause trouble. Today was really no different. When she heard her brother calling she smiled to herself, thinking perhaps she could play with him. Yes, that might be fun. "Out? I'm not in anything," Tia called to her brother. She wasn't anywhere to his left, nor right. In actuality she was in a tree right above him grinning like a fox. "And I am playing, silly."
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Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:13 pm
"Huh?" Banjoko heard his sister's voice, and she sounded very close by. But as he turned swiftly around in a circle, his eyes did not see any flash of orange like he expected. Momma had said that Tia was born such a bright orange so as to be a warning to all that trouble was coming. But right now, it did not help him in locating her.
"Tia? Where are you? I hear you, but..." He felt helpless, which was something Banjoko hated. It made him frustrated.
Had she gone invisible? If Tia ever figured out how to do that, Banjo thought, it would probably be the end of the world.
"Tia, I don't like this game very much!" His sister was the only one that Banjo let himself be annoyed with.
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:46 am
"I'm not hiding," Tia laughed, enjoying her brother's frustration. Teasing someone had become an affectionate gesture for the little trouble maker. Of course, that probably wasn't reasuring for her mother and Banjoko, but still. It was her own quirky way of saying she cared. Maybe.
Knowing of her brother's facination with their father, who they had never met, she murmured with a fake thoughtful tone, "Mm...I bet father could find me easily."
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:40 pm
Hearing his sister's taunting words was aggravating enough. But that she would bring up their father...No one talked about their father. Banjoko assumed that since their mother never did, he was a taboo subject. Just hearing her say such a thing made him afraid, though he did not know why. Why would she bring him up?
It hurt the boy, down in his heart. Banjoko loved his father though he did not know him, and wanted to be like him.
Their father was not there, but Banjoko had built up an image in his mind of the kind of lion he was - brave, strong, valiant - this almost-holy image of him. And now Tia was acting like it was no big deal.
Her seeming lack of regard for the sanctity of their father's image, plus the increasingly frustrating inability to locate Tia, brought the usually-reserved young male to the breaking point. Drawing back his head, Banjoko roared with all his might, venting his frustration without words. The sound he made was not as intimidating as he hoped it would be; the juvenile lion's roar barely even echoed.
But the very act of roaring had brought Banjoko's head up and his eyesight into the trees, where his tricky sister had hidden. "Tia, you...you..." he could not think of the appropriately bad thing to compare her to. "You're in for it!" he finally finished, yelling with a mixture of playfulness and real anger. She had stung his pride by eluding him, and he would show her that their father should be respected. Wrestling with other cubs was one of his favorite playtime activities, and though usually he would refrain from fighting a girl - this time he thought perhaps it would be worth it.
And Banjoko lept into the bark of the tree. A bit clumsy, but he was fueled by passion, and he pushed himself upwards with a grunt. "You better hope I don't catch you!"
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 9:49 am
Tia had always grown up with a different image of a father. Not someone grand, no. Someone stupid, worthless, and very much a flake. She could have no respect for someone who wasn't there for them. And if she ever met said father she'd needle him rather then present a welcome. No, she had little shame in messing with her brother's dream.
And where Banjo had spent his time wrestling with other children and becoming strong she had done the opposite. She had become fast, light, and ever so good at escape. For when one was a trickster the escape was the most important part of it all.
She smiled at her brother, her yellow eyes twinkling. "Oh you won't," she said innocently, stretching and climbing up a bit higher in the tree with ease. One thing she loved about the jungle was it was ever so eas to go from one tree to the next.
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:12 am
Banjoko was not nearly as good a climber as his sister, a fact that he had forgotten in the passing moment of his aggravation. Halfway up the tree to the first low branches, Banjoko found himself stuck into the bark, unable to move any higher up and too afraid to climb down. The nearest branch seemed to far away to reach.
Fear began trickling into his heart, and he watched his sister climb happily higher into the tree, unaware of his predicament. He wanted to call out for her help, but she would probably either tease him for it, or think he was trying to trick her and ignore him.
The aggravation he had felt for his sister only moments before was completely forgotten, replaced by a longing for her to come to his rescue, somehow. "T...tia..." he rasped softly, afraid to call out very loud. She would not hear him, of course, but he did not know what else to do. He wished just then that even though his sister was his opposite in most everything, that their sibling bond could overcome their differences. The young lion didn't know how Tia could help him, but she was the only one he could count on right now. Tia was his sister, his only sibling, and part of his family - now that he needed her, he realized this. And he regretted that he had been mad at her - she didn't deserve it. Tia was just being Tia.
He dug his claws deeper into the bark and clung close to the tree, feeling foolish and afraid, wondering how much it would hurt if he let go and fell.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:25 pm
Tia paused for a moment, leaning on her branch as she glanced down at her brother. Seeing him stuck she couldn't help but grin knowingly. Her whiskers lifted with her smerk and she rubbed her cheek against the wood idly, "Something wrong, Banjo?" Her tone was ever so sweet and innocent, unlike her intentions. She was such a tease.
Getting back up she jumped to a lower branch and climbed a bit so that she was within reach of her brother. She dangled her tail near his face tauntingly, peering at him with yellow eyes, "I thought you were going to get me, mm?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 7:40 pm
Banjoko sighed. He knew she would react this way, and his face burned with embarrasment. He had always considered himself the "big man" of the family, and here he was, stuck in a tree with his sister rightfully gloating above him. He looked down, unwilling to see his sister's teasing face, and instead saw the ground below him, a distance that dizzied him. His racing heart jumped up into his throat.
The tail dangling in front of his face brought his attention back upwards. He risked releasing a paw to swipe at it, both in play and in an attempt to grab hold of her. But that made him feel even more unsteady, and now all of his limbs were beginning to ache with the effort of holding his weight up. Quickly he grabbed onto the bark again.
"Forget it," he muttered through gritted teeth. He just wanted down off of this tree - Tia wasn't going to help and he didn't want to be teased any more. "I'll just let go and drop, and that'll be the end of it." He knew the landing would probably hurt, but Banjoko would take that pain over the sting of his injured pride and the embarrasment of his previous, unfulfilled boasts.
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Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:22 am
Tia flicked her tail, lifting it out of reach. She lay down across the branch as if she were sunning herself or perhaps the opposite, since the trees cast so many shadows. "Mm...I bet you could get down with that branch to your left..." she mused, running a claw over the wood she was perched on. "But, oop! You've given up. Never mind," she said with false dismay, rolling over to hand one of her back legs over the edge from where she sat.
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Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:44 pm
Banjoko heard Tia and then, all of a sudden, saw the opportunity that was within reach. He tried to ignore her next words, but they still pierced his thick skull. Now he had to weigh his options. Should he reach for the branch that would mean redemption, but at the cost of his pride? Or simply follow through with his original plan - to drop from the tree and escape ridicule with his pride intact, but endure the pain he knew that fall would incur.
He was already in pain. The longer he tarried, the more his limbs ached. He had to make a decision...and he followed his instinct.
Before he could dwell on it, Banjo released his claws from the bark and swiftly, suddenly, he fell to the ground. There was an instant relief in his limbs, that was replaced just as suddenly by the pain of landing feet-first on the jungle floor. The blue striped boy stayed a moment with his head down, recovering, letting the rings of pain reverberate through his body and slowly fade.
He lay there a moment, breathing heavily. Feelings of shame began to creep up, but he ignored them. Tia had won this battle, no matter which way he looked at it. In his mind, he took the braver way out - besides, he would have been ridiculed no matter what he did.
"I give," Banjoko said softly. Raising his head, Banjoko called up to his sister. "I give in," he repeated, louder this time. "You win this one, Tia, I give up." The proud boy was humbled, but only temporarily.
Banjoko was about to walk away. But then he reconsidered, and called up to Tia once more, in a more contrite and almost helpless voice. "Tia...you're my only sister and I love you. Really, I do... It's just too bad that we're so different."
Banjoko felt a bit foolish, but he felt that that needed to be said. Putting the matter behind him, Banjoko took off into the foliage.
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